Slowing Down Quickly

We may be slipping into the “last stretch” now. The changes are coming quickly and they are quite pronounced. I’m just going to bullet point changes so as to make them easier to understand and to process in your thinking. Please note, most of these changes have occurred in the first three days of this week. So, when I say quickly, I mean Quickly!

Mom is sleeping even more now and it is hard to waken her for food or meds.

Mom is eating almost nothing these days and we have started her on Ensure in order to get some nutrients into her system.

Mom is taking in very little in fluids, she can’t even finish an 8 ounce bottle of Ensure in a day, and she declines the iced tea, which she had previously enjoyed, almost without fail.

As a result of her reduced intake of foods and fluids, her fluid output is greatly reduced. Her urine is much stronger smelling now and is actually a brownish color.

Her heart rate is only in the 80’s, but we are expecting it to climb as her heart has to work harder and harder to assist her failing organs.

She is seeing and conversing with people that I cannot see in those times when she does wake from sleeping for a moment.

She is experiencing very real anxiety if she wakens, looks around and doesn’t see me or a caregiver sitting in her room. We are almost always here now, leaving only to get her something or take a quick potty run or grab a tea refill.

Mom’s pain is increasing and we are keeping her medicated for that pain more frequently now.  The offset of that is that she will become more somnolent than she already is, but that option is favorable to her being in pain.

Her breathing is slowing down. There are sometimes delays between snores or deep breaths, which the Hospice Nurse says will increase to almost apnea like stops in her breathing for a moment here and there.

Through all of these changes, when Mom wakens and sees me with her, she smiles. She even still plays little games with me when I am trying to feed her, like closing her mouth just as the food gets to it and then giggling. It makes me more likely to spill that pudding or applesauce with her meds in it, but it’s none the less delightful to see her smile and know that her joyful spirit is still very much alive and doing fine!

She is certainly setting the bar high for her kids in her handling of this whole “dying with grace” process. Which comes as no surprise to any of us who have known her all her life. I sure do love her!